Greenland Melting Faster

Just in time for Copenhagen, here's another shot of data to bust the policy clots preventing a meaningful agreement. According to a new study in Science, the Greenland ice sheet is loosing mass at an accelerating rate. The reason is twofold:

First, from increased iceberg production driven by acceleration of Greenland’s fast-flowing outlet glaciers. (I've blogged on the mechanisms of this several times.)

Second, from increased meltwater production on the ice sheet surface. (I've blogged on this mechanism too.)

The Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to cause a global sea level rise of 23 feet. Since 2000 it's added to a global sea level rise of ~0.02 inch a year, for 0.2 inch total.

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